Heretofore, a wire harness to be wired from an engine room in a motor vehicle to a passenger room mounts a grommet, and the grommet is attached to a through-hole provided in a vehicle body panel for partitioning a vehicle body of the motor vehicle into the engine room and the passenger room so as to protect the wire harness passing the through-hole and to waterproof, dustproof, and sound-insulate the through-hole from an engine room side to a passenger room side.
Such grommet has been disclosed in JP 2001-263494 A (Patent Document 1). In many cases, such grommet has a construction shown in FIG. 10A. A grommet 100 includes a smaller diameter tubular section 101 and a conical enlarging diameter tubular section 102 contiguous with the section 101. The enlarging diameter section 102 is provided on a larger diameter end with a larger thickness portion 103. The larger thickness portion 103 is provided in an outer peripheral surface with an annular vehicle body latch recess 104. As shown in FIG. 10B, the grommet 100, through which a wire harness passes, is inserted into a through-hole 3 in a vehicle body panel 2, and the vehicle body latch recess 104 is engaged with a peripheral edge around the through-hole 3.
Currently, a wiring space for the wire harness has been decreased in association with a drastic increase of electrical equipments to be installed in a motor vehicle. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 11A, the wire harness W/H that passes the through-hole 3 in the vehicle body panel 2 will interfere with an electrical equipment D, if the wire harness W/H is arranged straightly. In particular, since electrical equipments to be installed in an instrument panel, into which the wire harness is drawn, has been increased significantly, there will be a possibility that the wire harness W/H is bent at an angle of 90 (ninety) degrees, as shown in FIG. 11A.
If the wire harness W/H is bent at the angle of 90 degrees, as shown in FIG. 11A, the smaller diameter tubular section 101 of the grommet 100 closely mounted on the wire harness W/H is also bent. The enlarging diameter tubular section 102 contiguous with the smaller diameter tubular section 101 is pulled in a bending direction, and the vehicle body latch recess 104 provided on the enlarging diameter tubular section 102 is also pulled. Consequently, as shown in FIG. 11B, a slant wall side surface 104a of the recess 104 is deformed to float up. Thus, there is a possibility that any deleterious effect will occur in a sealing function between the inner peripheral surface of the through-hole 3 and the recess 104.
Patent Document 1: JP 2001-263494 A